Dorothy’s fight for public transport continues

DOROTHY Mills won't give up the fight for better public transport in Toowoomba.

The Australian Pensioners and Superannuants League Toowoomba branch secretary retired to Toowoomba years ago from Newcastle and was immediately struck by the isolation many pensioners and elderly people were subject to thanks to the lack of suitable public transport.

In an otherwise perfect retirement Mecca, she believes public transport is the one thing holding us back and her fight to improve it has turned into something of a passion.

Year after year she attends council meetings, submits suggestions for planning documents, lobbies State Government representatives and meets with fellow pensioners to push the message that public transport is vital for safe and productive communities.

She has amassed a huge amount of information, letters from government ministers and councillors and news clippings on the issue.

"You've got to keep at them," she said.

"It's the only way they'll listen.

"I've been lobbying for more than 10 years and I'm still carrying on even though a lot of others have lost hope.

"We put so many submissions in for the sustainability draft plan in 2014 and nothing came of it except the CBD shuttle service, which they're now cancelling due to lack of patronage.

"It was a waste of money and a waste of time."

While she now lives in a location a bit closer to the city, Ms Mills' former residence in Wilsonton Heights was about a 40-minute trip to the city centre.

She was luckily only a short walk from a bus stop, but others are less fortunate if they live a little further off the beaten track, particularly in the western side of many of the city.

She said she felt most sorry for the people living north of the city in places like Highfields and Cabarlah, where the earliest a person could hope to arrive at Toowoomba was 9.20am and the latest they could depart in order to make it home on the last bus was 1.45pm.

The situation leaves workers unable to live in the fast-growing centres until a bus suitable for a work commute is introduced.

The other big issue for Ms Mills is social isolation because of buses not running on Sundays and public holidays when cheap and free events were going on around the city people could attend.

Events like the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers and Summer Tunes as well as smaller community events were often closed off to people without their own car and licence.

Efforts by Toowoomba Regional Council to alleviate the issue, which is mainly covered at a state government level, have come up largely fruitless due to a lack of patronage.